Little Falls transcript., 1887-03-18
Victims Of Q,,il,ine., ,
st. Louis Republican.

i Nv A|00A0 5ASV P0AANGSus
A vonng man with a pale face, close
! clipped hair, graceful n,onstache, dex-
terious white hands, clad in the neat
est attire, sauntered into q Fifth
street drug store one day recently
and glanced at that corner Of the room
whore the mineral water splgots were
displayed. ~ @a* Fl
Hes lily, but he's gone on the
drug" whispered a clerk. whose duty
1t didn't chance to be to wait on him.
"See he don't even have to ask for
what he wants." continued the clerk.
as another Capsule shooter" tripped
nlnbly up to the customer, produced
jar OF pills. poured out a couple,
and presented them to. the customer,
with glass of mineral water to fur
nlsh them transportation.
The customer swallowed the pills
and mineral water as though they had
been a part of his daily food ever
since the war. They were evidently
to him what the gin and wormwood
bracer is to the saloon pet, and he
bowed and smiled on the proprietor
as ne turned on his heel and disap-
peared. His shadow was still in sight
when thin, cadaverous-looking man,
wearing unmistakable signs of MINIS
trelsy-a pug hat that was not new
and yards Of hair on the edges of his
coat entered the door, He was a.
stranger in the place and he had to
ask in his artless, burnt cork way for
quinine pills before the accommodating
clerk brought down the jars of little
pellets. He took three, and, as an
economic measure. undertook to
make way with them without the
mineral water accompaniment. They
lodged, and he began in a disturbed
tone, as the clerk was presenting his
change
''Take out for glass
eyes, there is All Increased demand
for quinine," said the clerk who had
called attention to the first customer.
ut is just like the drinking habit with
men, the demand gradually increases.
The customers for quinine are in the
main, people who consider the use
Of intoxicating liquors terrible vice.
They are people of frail physique,
whom a. few hours work exhausts.
They discover that quinine is an ap-
petlzer for them and they begin taking
small doses OF it. If four grains
brighten them up in the morning, it
will take more than a dozen grains to
produce the same effect in a year.
Most of them drop into drug store
in the evening, while on their way
home to dinner, and get g, dose of
quinine pills proportional in size to
the time they have been slaves to that
habit. 1t completely knockes out a
confirmed feeder on the insidious drug
to stop using it, and only a few ever
make the attempt.
''The ladies, too, are quinine con
sumers. More of them than you
would ever suspect drop in after the
matinee or after they have made a
long and tiresome round shopping, to
enliven themselves with the seductive
quinine pill. There are not many la
dies who are killing themselves with
the stuff, like many frail clerks and
business men are"
"What does it cost them?"
"Well, from a business point OF
view it is cheaper than whiskey, and
it will kill its victim quicker than
whiskey. It's cheaper because you
don't set 'em up as often as you do if
you are a whiskey drinker. If man
gets away with q dollars worth OF
quinine a week he is destroying his life
Drettv fast"